At 14, I was a live-in babysitter for my cousin. She had a six year old, a three year-old and a one year-old. I watched them while she and her husband worked second shift at a factory--from 3 in the afternoon until 11 o'clock at night. I couldn't drive--they lived out in the country. I cooked them dinner, bathed them and put them in bed. AND got up with them in the morning so their parents could sleep in.

I remember one time babysitting (14 I think), I put the infant to sleep and took the other kid outside to toss a ball, but the door locked behind me.

I went to a neighbor and called the parents who directed me to another neighbor with a spare housekey and got back into the house.

I felt so bad I never babysitted again, the parents were actually very pleased because I handled the crisis.

What about a 15 year old that has a kid? It's not unheard of.

Presumably her parents could be *cautioned* for leaving her home alone to get pregnant.

Also, what Gud said.

Doesn't the sentence fragment "in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in Haiti" smack, at best, of sloppy construction?

I'm more struck by the ignorance of geography.

My first babysitting gig was for our across-the-street neighbors' six-month-old baby. It was probably the perfect first-time babysitting job, since my mom was right across the road for help if I needed it, the family was already really familiar with me and my parents, it was a later-in-the-evening gig so the baby was already asleep, and I only had to comfort her once the rest of the evening.

Soon after that, I was getting the jobs my sister had to turn down due to already being booked for the night, and then I started picking up my own jobs after getting references from those people I'd already worked for. By the time I was 13, I had a regular Saturday night job that lasted for nearly a year with the woman I worked with at the local branch library where I volunteered. She and her hubby were big-time partiers who went out every Saturday night, so the hub would pick me up at 6:00 every week, and then I'd get home sometime between 2 and 3 in the morning. For NYE, they had me just stay overnight since they knew they'd be out even later, so I made breakfast with the kids while the parents were sleeping in, and they paid me double for that night as my belated Christmas present.

I continued babysitting throughout high school, and even on college breaks during my freshman year. My mom moved out of that house into a condo the following summer, so I stopped then.

One generation passes away, and another generation comes;

An old history professor used to say, "In a hundred years...all new people!"

But the earth abides forever.

I always say, Nature Will Win. Period. Someone said it better upthread...the earth will, indeed survive. Our ability to live on it? Highly questionable.

the parents were actually very pleased because I handled the crisis.

My big crisis moment babysitting was when I heard an alarm going off in the house, and I got the kids and the dog outside since I thought it was a fire alarm. After we were out there a few minutes and nothing seemed to be happening inside, I told the oldest to stay with his little brother and ventured back in (stupid on my part, but I didn't want to look like an idiot if it was nothing!), only to find out that it was a bedside alarm clock that had a weird alarm and was set for PM not AM. The parents were very sweet when they came home.

I was babysitting at twelve, too! Sometimes for infants!

Me too!

I was babysitting when I was 10. Admittedly, it was for the baby next door and my mom was there if I needed anything, but still!